


Love is a Battlefield

by TheCarmineWanker



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25182343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCarmineWanker/pseuds/TheCarmineWanker
Summary: "The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all." Soulmate AU.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 194





	Love is a Battlefield

After they met Aunt Wu for the first time and Katara was told about who she would marry, she felt restless. That feeling, that sat with her and wouldn’t go away, pushed her to go back to the fortune teller the next day.

“Ah, Katara, are you here for another reading?” She shook her head.

“No, thank you. I was hoping we could talk about the reading you gave me yesterday.”

“Of course.” Stepping aside, the woman beckoned for Katara to enter the room. They took a seat and Katara started to fidget a bit.

“When you told me about who I would marry, how does that work? Is it already decided by the spirits or something, like soulmates?”

“No, it’s much more fluid than that because the future itself is fluid, by its very nature, like water. At this point in time, you are most likely to marry a powerful bender but that can change as you change.” Aunt Wu smiled. “Soulmates are a different matter, though.”

“What do you mean? Are you saying they exist?” She nodded.

“Yes, they do, but they are not predetermined as you believe them to be and they are rare for a reason. The bond is formed when two people realize, at the same moment, that they cannot live without each other. That realization forms the bond and, then, the next time they touch, a mark forms on their skin.”

“That’s… incredible.” Katara’s eyes were wide with disbelief and wonder. “So, if that happened to me, if I somehow got a soulmate, that would be who I marry, even if they’re not a powerful bender?”

“Not necessarily. The realization that you can’t live without someone, that the bond is built on, is not inherently romantic. Your soulmate could be family or even an enemy.” Katara gasped, face frozen in shock. “I understand how that is shocking to you, but two enemies who live for and rely on their conflict, who need each other as nemeses to live, could be as likely to have that bond as a married couple.”

“Has that ever happened?” Aunt Wu nodded.

“Yes, twice in recorded history, but long enough ago that you would not know the stories. The first resulted in the Water Tribe being split and the second was two brothers, Jin Wei and Wei Jin, whose legacy of enmity has resulted in a longstanding feud between two tribes, the Zhangs and the Gan Jins.” 

Katara was shellshocked. Hard as she tried to keep the thought out of her head, it seeped in through the cracks anyway to torment her- what if Zuko ended up being her soulmate? She knew it was silly, since Aunt Wu just said that there were only two cases in all of history of enemies becoming soulmates, but she couldn’t help but worry anyway. After all, she knew that those stories had happened; she lived in the Southern Tribe and she had just met the Zhangs and the Gan Jins. It wasn’t just that it was Zuko, though- she didn’t want such a mark to show how she had devoted her life to hatred. Aunt Wu just waited patiently as Katara wrestled with her thoughts until she had them under control and was ready to ask one last question.

“So, someone could have more than one soulmate, theoretically, like their entire family or a friend and an enemy or something?”

“Yes, but that has only happened once.” She took a deep breath.

“Okay, I think I get it, thank you for explaining. I had no idea soulmates even existed so this has been really informative.” She got up and Aunt Wu followed suit. “Thank you for everything, knowing that my destiny isn’t set in stone is really helpful.” The older woman took her hands with a kind smile.

“I may not know, for certain, what your future will be, but I know that you are a very strong young woman and that you have the will and determination to shape your destiny into whatever you wish it to be.”

~~~

This conversation haunted her, briefly and intermittently, throughout the rest of her journey. She remembered it when she fought Zuko at the north pole when he said that thing about how she rises with the moon and he with the sun. She remembered it any time she saw a wanted poster for him after that, when he was a fugitive. She remembered when his uncle was shot with lightning and she offered to help. She remembered when they were stuck in the catacombs together, when she was yelling at him, when he said he had lost his mother, too, when she offered to heal his scar, when she turned her back on him. She remembered when she fought him after he sided with his sister and betrayed her. 

She remembered when he showed up, after the eclipse, when she swaddled herself in a safety blanket of white-hot hatred. She remembered when she threatened to kill him. She remembered when he took Aang to find a lost civilization just to help teach him firebending. She remembered when he broke into a high security Fire Nation prison run by his ex girlfriend’s uncle and brought her father back to her. She remembered when Azula attacked and he pushed her out of the way, oh-so-carefully, to keep her from being crushed by falling rocks. She remembered when he was the only one who understood that she needed closure, even before she did, and helped her instead of judging her and telling her to let it go. She remembered watching all of it played back during that stupid play. She remembered when Jun referred to her as his girlfriend. She remembered when he hesitated outside of Iroh’s tent, unsure if his uncle would forgive him. She remembered when he, with no hesitation, asked her to be the one to come with him to fight Azula. She remembered when he, like an idiot, agreed to take her on one-on-one.

As she watched the fight, violent splashes of red and blue against a blood red sky, she felt confident that he would win, in spite of her nerves. He was right- Azula was slipping and Katara was sure that, even with the comet, this was the best chance they’d ever have of defeating her. But, then, there was sparkling blue electricity, aimed right at her, and she had no time to register what was happening, what was coming at her, and react. But Zuko did. She watched him jump in front of lightning, the lightning that was meant for _her_ and it hit her like a brick- _he can’t die because I need him._ Her instinct should have been to immediately go beat Azula for the sake of the war and all that but, no, she _had_ to get to him, she needed to heal him because she couldn’t live if he died and it shook her to the core.

The whole time she fought Azula she just had that one goal of healing him. It didn’t register until after it was all over that she, a waterbender, defeated a fire bending prodigy during the comet only in a few minutes. She didn’t care about that, though, or even Azula. As soon as she was chained up and would stay out of the way, Katara raced over to Zuko, coating her hands in glowing blue water as she ran to him. He was sprawled out on his back so that, as soon as she got to him, she got right to work, putting her hands on his wound, moving them over his sternum.

It was a minute before she saw it, as she was finishing up- white lines branching out around the now scarring wound, forming a beautiful, stylized lotus design. She put the water back in her skin and glanced at her hands, noticing similar designs on her palms.

“Thank you, Katara.” She smiled, in spite of the tears in her eyes.

“I think I’m the one who should be thanking you.” 

And, then, he kissed her and everything just _clicked._ She didn’t care that Azula was still right over there, yelling and thrashing, and she didn’t even care that they just won the war. What she did care about was that the idiot who was going to throw his life away for her was still alive and that, apparently, this idiot was her soulmate. He still didn’t know that, though, but Katara would be sure to tell him later, after everything else was taken care of and everything. She wasn’t sure how he’d take it, or if they would actually end up in a romantic relationship, but she knew they would figure it out and looked forward to shaping their future, together. As she stood there, under a blood red sky, watching Azula screaming and crying, with Zuko leaning on her for support, she actually smiled. 


End file.
